A Brand New Goal

Hello World!!

After several lame attempts at blogging, I think I've finally found an interesting topic. This week I set a new goal for myself and it will hopefully create lots of fun things to write about. My goal is to have an adventure every week this school year. It may continue further, but I want to give it a try first.

For my purposes, an activity will qualify as an adventure if it meets one of these three requirements:
1. Something I've never done before.
2. Something that isn't in my routine and I cannot predict the next time it will happen.
3. Something that I ditch all immediate responsibility to go and do.

I started off this week pretty well. Thursday night I was tired and bored. So was Michelle. But I decided I wanted to do something interesting rather than sleep. We are out working on a resort just outside Zion National Park right now, so adventures aren't too hard to come by. It had rained heavily a few days prior, and I knew the greenery in the park would be spectacular. Being from the Pacific Northwest, this makes me happy.

I begun the adventure by telling Michelle I wanted to see Weeping Rock after all this rain. It took about 30 seconds to convince her to come with me. We grabbed our cameras, put on shoes, and went to her car. We relaxed as the car wound further down North Fork to Hwy 9. By the time we reached the entrance to the park, we were happily disconnected to the resort. A break from work is always nice, a break from where you live is too; when they are the same thing, a break is extraordinarily amazing.

We road the shuttle up past Zion Lodge and deeper into the canyon. The sun wasn't yet setting, but deep below the cliffs, shadows were already stretching across the road. Weeping Rock is a good way up the canyon, but the hike itself is short: only a quarter mile or so. We quickly reached the end of the trail and grabbed out our cameras. Standing under the perpetual rain that drips from the cliff face, we snapped pictures of rocks, water droplets, Me looking silly, Michelle looking silly, the green pools below the cliff, the clouds above Angel's Landing, both of us pretending to be serious, neither of us being serious at all, and whatever else caught our attention.

I hadn't been to Weeping Rock in years, and it was actually only the third hike I've manage to take this summer in the park. My solo trip to Emerald Pools was a few months ago, and although I loved hiking almost to the top of Angel's Landing (I'm scared of heights, and we didn't have time for me to take lots of breaks to gather courage), it wasn't my favorite sort of hike. I prefer nature walk type hikes with lots of photo opportunities. Weeping Rock was just what I needed.

On the way back down canyon, we were both thirsty. I suggested we jump off the shuttle at the lodge, get a quick drink from the fountain, look in the gift shop, then take the next shuttle. It was a good suggestion, but we didn't follow it. Instead we got off, got our drink, and spent nearly an hour in the gift shop and playing chess. We finally decided we should get home soon and headed back out to the next shuttle.

I felt highly accomplished in the beginning of my new goal. I hope to continue as successfully for quite some time.